The Curious Incident of the Dog….

Once a teacher – always a teacher.

Thus, dear Reader, it's time for a pop quiz. Can you complete today’s title? The Curious Incident of the Dog….

Sorry, 30 seconds remaining.

Now if you saw my first post a couple of weeks ago you know I read a book this summer about autism. The remarkable story is entitled Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet.

Well, here is its companion: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The author went on to win the Whitbread Book Award for this clever story of a young autistic boy [Christopher Boone] who has discovered his neighbor’s poodle impaled on a garden fork. Yes, that’s right. Structurally, the story is a “who-dunnit” mystery but it is much more. The book is full of insights into the mind and manners of an autistic. For example, Christopher dislikes the colors yellow and brown, but loves red. He believes that seeing three, four or five red cars in a row means it's a good, or very good day, respectively, while four yellow cars signify a "black" day. The boy has the same "obsessions" for order as Daniel Tammet explains in his story. Extraordinarily interesting.

These two books – each in their own way – make for excellent reading.